The family of Stephanie Cordery, a 42-year-old woman who vanished a month ago in northern New South Wales, are launching their own search after police called off a 13-day ground operation that had covered a 300-metre radius. Ms Cordery's disappearance in an area long linked to unexplained deaths and disappearances has alarmed her mother, who says the scale of the official response falls well short of resources deployed for other recent high-profile searches in the state, and who fears assumptions about her daughter's mental health may have affected how the case was prioritised.

Ms Cordery was last seen on CCTV leaving temporary accommodation in Ballina at 5am on 5 August before her car was tracked through Lismore and Nimbin; it was later found abandoned at her boyfriend's property near Nightcap National Park with her handbag, wallet and keys still inside. Despite an initial multi-agency search involving police, sniffer dogs, the RFS and SES, no trace of her has been found, and detectives continue to investigate even though the formal search has ended. Her family has started a GoFundMe to fund a private search this weekend covering an 800-metre radius around where the car was found, and is appealing for fit volunteers to comb the rugged terrain on foot.